AP PSYCHOLOGY STUDY GUIDE
WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Wilhelm Wundt - Correct Answers -1. Introduced structuralism
(Bell experiment)
2. Set up the first psychological laboratory
Introspection - Correct Answers -study of the mind by looking into oneself
structuralism - Correct Answers -identifying components of the mind:
combined subjective emotions and objective sensations (Wundt)
"the whole is equal to the sum of the parts"
Freud - Correct Answers -Personality theorist who created psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic Theory - Correct Answers -Focus on past childhood experience,
repressed memories, and study of the unconscious mind (Freud)
Behaviorism - Correct Answers -Focus on stimuli and response-study only observable
behavior (Watson)
Humanistic Perspective - Correct Answers -Emphasized the human capacity for free-will
and individual choice (Rogers & Maslow)
Evolutionary Perspective - Correct Answers -Examines how behaviors help a species
survive from on generation to the next, focus on natural selection
Biopsychology - Correct Answers -Explains human thought in terms of the relationship
between biology and psychology
Social-Cultural - Correct Answers -behavior varies by culture
Pavlov - Correct Answers -Behaviorist-Classically conditioned dogs to salivate at the
sound of a bell
Watson - Correct Answers -Behaviorist-In his Little Albert Experiment he conditioned
Albert to fear white rat by associating it with loud noises
Skinner - Correct Answers -Behaviorist-Proposed theory of operant conditioning with
skinner box experiment, reinforcing rats behavior with rewards or punishments
,Independent Variable - Correct Answers -Changed by experimenter-what is being
controlled
Dependent Variable - Correct Answers -Changed by independent variable
Operational definition - Correct Answers -Defining how something is measured in an
experiment: help to easily replicate
Target Population - Correct Answers -Demographic experimenter wants to study
Representative Sample - Correct Answers -Group that resembles target population
Stratified Sample - Correct Answers -Takes specific criteria (race, gender, %) into
account
Matched pairs - Correct Answers -Similar people for different conditions of a study
Experimenter bias - Correct Answers -when experimenter treats people differently
because of his/her expected results
Double blind - Correct Answers -Neither experimenter nor subject knows which group
subject is in
Single blind - Correct Answers -Subject does not know which group (control or
experimental) they are in
Demand characteristics - Correct Answers -Cues that subject picks up on and uses in
order to respond appropriately
Placebo effect - Correct Answers -Taking a drug that has no pharmacological effects
produces similar results as the real medication
Positive Correlation - Correct Answers -A direct relationship in which both variables are
increasing or both are decreasing
Negative Correlation - Correct Answers -An inverse relationship in which one variable
increases and the other decreases or vice versa
Survey Method - Correct Answers -Easy to distriubute to large population and
inexpensive, but can't control who sends it back, and has other confounding variables
Naturalistic Observation - Correct Answers -Has high ecological validity (acts normally
in natural habitat) but can't control variables and therefore does not show cause and
effect
,Case studies - Correct Answers -Follows in detail one person or a group of people with
a rare condition
Hindsight bias - Correct Answers -Tendency to believe, once the outcome is already
known, that you would have foreseen it (Also "I-Knew-It-All-Along Phenomenon)
Applied research - Correct Answers -Solving a problem
Basic research - Correct Answers -Just because
Validity - Correct Answers -Measures what experiment is supposed to
Reliability - Correct Answers -Same result every time
Random assignment - Correct Answers -Equal chance of anyone in sample population
to be placed in either control or experimental group
Random selection - Correct Answers -Randomly gathering a representative sample for
a study by identifying a population and randomly selecting people from that population
Social desirability effect - Correct Answers -Tendenecy to give the politically correct
answer
Hawthorne effect - Correct Answers -Merely observing an experiment changes its
outcome
Debriefing - Correct Answers -Any information withheld from subject prior to or during
experimentation must be reveled
IRB - Correct Answers -Review board for ethical standards
Descriptive statistics - Correct Answers -Describes a set of data
Inferential statistics - Correct Answers -Applying data to the larger population
Histogram - Correct Answers -bar graph
Frequency Polygon - Correct Answers -line graph
Measures of central tendency (3) - Correct Answers -Mean-add all points, divide by # of
points
Median-middle #
Mode-most frequent
Outliers - Correct Answers -Numbers that are much greater or much less than the other
numbers in the set
, Positive Skew - Correct Answers -when the outlier is higher than than the bulk of the
data
Negative Skew - Correct Answers -when the outlier is lower than the bulk of the data
Range - Correct Answers -Largest # minus Smallest #
Standard deviation - Correct Answers -How far a score is from the mean
Square root of variant
Z-score - Correct Answers -How far a score is from the mean in standard deviants
(score - mean) / standard deviant
Describe the normal curve and percentages - Correct Answers -Bulge is in middle-
median score is 100.
1st rectangle= .1%
2nd rectangle=2%
3rd rectangle=14%
4th rectangle=34%
Line of best fit/regression line - Correct Answers -Line that goes through the majority of
data points to create a correlation out of a scatter plot
Correlational coefficient - Correct Answers -Strong positive correlation: +1.0
Strong negative correlation: -1.0
No correlation: 0
Sampling error - Correct Answers -Extent to which a sample differs from the population
p-value - Correct Answers -Determines statistical significance: want number to .05 or
lower
Null hypothesis - Correct Answers -Opposite of hypothesis being tested
Type 1 error - Correct Answers -Rejecting null hypothesis when it is true
Type 2 error - Correct Answers -Accepting null hypothesis when you should have
rejected it
All or nothing principle - Correct Answers -Once action potential reaches threshold,
either fires or doesn't
Axon - Correct Answers -Wire-like structure extending from cell body that transmits
messages
WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Wilhelm Wundt - Correct Answers -1. Introduced structuralism
(Bell experiment)
2. Set up the first psychological laboratory
Introspection - Correct Answers -study of the mind by looking into oneself
structuralism - Correct Answers -identifying components of the mind:
combined subjective emotions and objective sensations (Wundt)
"the whole is equal to the sum of the parts"
Freud - Correct Answers -Personality theorist who created psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic Theory - Correct Answers -Focus on past childhood experience,
repressed memories, and study of the unconscious mind (Freud)
Behaviorism - Correct Answers -Focus on stimuli and response-study only observable
behavior (Watson)
Humanistic Perspective - Correct Answers -Emphasized the human capacity for free-will
and individual choice (Rogers & Maslow)
Evolutionary Perspective - Correct Answers -Examines how behaviors help a species
survive from on generation to the next, focus on natural selection
Biopsychology - Correct Answers -Explains human thought in terms of the relationship
between biology and psychology
Social-Cultural - Correct Answers -behavior varies by culture
Pavlov - Correct Answers -Behaviorist-Classically conditioned dogs to salivate at the
sound of a bell
Watson - Correct Answers -Behaviorist-In his Little Albert Experiment he conditioned
Albert to fear white rat by associating it with loud noises
Skinner - Correct Answers -Behaviorist-Proposed theory of operant conditioning with
skinner box experiment, reinforcing rats behavior with rewards or punishments
,Independent Variable - Correct Answers -Changed by experimenter-what is being
controlled
Dependent Variable - Correct Answers -Changed by independent variable
Operational definition - Correct Answers -Defining how something is measured in an
experiment: help to easily replicate
Target Population - Correct Answers -Demographic experimenter wants to study
Representative Sample - Correct Answers -Group that resembles target population
Stratified Sample - Correct Answers -Takes specific criteria (race, gender, %) into
account
Matched pairs - Correct Answers -Similar people for different conditions of a study
Experimenter bias - Correct Answers -when experimenter treats people differently
because of his/her expected results
Double blind - Correct Answers -Neither experimenter nor subject knows which group
subject is in
Single blind - Correct Answers -Subject does not know which group (control or
experimental) they are in
Demand characteristics - Correct Answers -Cues that subject picks up on and uses in
order to respond appropriately
Placebo effect - Correct Answers -Taking a drug that has no pharmacological effects
produces similar results as the real medication
Positive Correlation - Correct Answers -A direct relationship in which both variables are
increasing or both are decreasing
Negative Correlation - Correct Answers -An inverse relationship in which one variable
increases and the other decreases or vice versa
Survey Method - Correct Answers -Easy to distriubute to large population and
inexpensive, but can't control who sends it back, and has other confounding variables
Naturalistic Observation - Correct Answers -Has high ecological validity (acts normally
in natural habitat) but can't control variables and therefore does not show cause and
effect
,Case studies - Correct Answers -Follows in detail one person or a group of people with
a rare condition
Hindsight bias - Correct Answers -Tendency to believe, once the outcome is already
known, that you would have foreseen it (Also "I-Knew-It-All-Along Phenomenon)
Applied research - Correct Answers -Solving a problem
Basic research - Correct Answers -Just because
Validity - Correct Answers -Measures what experiment is supposed to
Reliability - Correct Answers -Same result every time
Random assignment - Correct Answers -Equal chance of anyone in sample population
to be placed in either control or experimental group
Random selection - Correct Answers -Randomly gathering a representative sample for
a study by identifying a population and randomly selecting people from that population
Social desirability effect - Correct Answers -Tendenecy to give the politically correct
answer
Hawthorne effect - Correct Answers -Merely observing an experiment changes its
outcome
Debriefing - Correct Answers -Any information withheld from subject prior to or during
experimentation must be reveled
IRB - Correct Answers -Review board for ethical standards
Descriptive statistics - Correct Answers -Describes a set of data
Inferential statistics - Correct Answers -Applying data to the larger population
Histogram - Correct Answers -bar graph
Frequency Polygon - Correct Answers -line graph
Measures of central tendency (3) - Correct Answers -Mean-add all points, divide by # of
points
Median-middle #
Mode-most frequent
Outliers - Correct Answers -Numbers that are much greater or much less than the other
numbers in the set
, Positive Skew - Correct Answers -when the outlier is higher than than the bulk of the
data
Negative Skew - Correct Answers -when the outlier is lower than the bulk of the data
Range - Correct Answers -Largest # minus Smallest #
Standard deviation - Correct Answers -How far a score is from the mean
Square root of variant
Z-score - Correct Answers -How far a score is from the mean in standard deviants
(score - mean) / standard deviant
Describe the normal curve and percentages - Correct Answers -Bulge is in middle-
median score is 100.
1st rectangle= .1%
2nd rectangle=2%
3rd rectangle=14%
4th rectangle=34%
Line of best fit/regression line - Correct Answers -Line that goes through the majority of
data points to create a correlation out of a scatter plot
Correlational coefficient - Correct Answers -Strong positive correlation: +1.0
Strong negative correlation: -1.0
No correlation: 0
Sampling error - Correct Answers -Extent to which a sample differs from the population
p-value - Correct Answers -Determines statistical significance: want number to .05 or
lower
Null hypothesis - Correct Answers -Opposite of hypothesis being tested
Type 1 error - Correct Answers -Rejecting null hypothesis when it is true
Type 2 error - Correct Answers -Accepting null hypothesis when you should have
rejected it
All or nothing principle - Correct Answers -Once action potential reaches threshold,
either fires or doesn't
Axon - Correct Answers -Wire-like structure extending from cell body that transmits
messages
